Summit (In) Different
Published in The Fellrunner #129 (Spring 2021)
Sgurr a’ Mhaim is a favourite hill of many, myself included. Although its Gaelic name ‘peak of the large rounded hill’ is descriptive rather than poetic, it's a real beauty - the white quartzite summit pyramid often catching the light impressively when seen from Glen Nevis. From that angle, the bright screes and steep bulky north-west ridge obscure the more technical ground beyond, where the Devil’s Ridge continues to the rest of the Mamores.
It’s a special mountain for me: I’ve ascended many times, ran reps up it (two reps, once!), raced down it, skied its north bowl and south flank, and looped out to it when running various Rounds - Tranters and Mamores - or on other great runs like the Ring of Steall and the locally popular Mullach - Stob Ban - Sgurr a’ Mhaim loop. But I’ve never run around it.
Es Tresidder spotted an interesting dotted line on the 1:40,000 Harvey’s map which traverses the north of the mountain after leaving the north-west ridge at around 650m elevation. It then wiggles round the eastern aspect dropping south below and to the east of the Devil’s Ridge before climbing to the Stob Choire a’ Mhail (Devil’s Ridge) - Sgorr an Iubhair col. From there we could descend the well established track to pretty Lochan Coire nam Miseach and then see how much of a path the map’s intermittent petering out continuation of the traverse line actually indicated. A dotted line on a map can mean many things, from basically nothing visible right up to very prominent, highly engineered stalkers’ tracks - what would we find?
Aaron, Es’s eight year old son decided he wanted to join us as he’s a keen runner and cyclist. The trip was planned as more of an exploration than any sort of speedy session, so it suited me fine and, impressively, he didn’t actually slow us up very much anyway. It was a fine warm June day, sunny with a little high cloud as we made our way up the steep north-west ridge. Reaching the obvious start of the circumnavigation track above Sron Sgurr a’ Mhaim we headed off northwards along what I now know to be a good example of a ‘rock slope failure’ where part of the hillside has slipped downhill slightly to create a horizontal ridge with adjacent hollow.
Cloud moved slowly across the sky, casting transitory shadows over the rugged southern slopes and ridges of Ben Nevis and the Aonachs. The path was variable - mostly obvious and well defined, but at times vague and easily lost for a short time. Rounding a spur it took a gentle rising line across Coire Sgorach, more reminiscent of an alpine hut approach trail through rocky meadows than an obsolete Highland stalking trod. We crossed the north-east col and views into the centre of the ‘ring’ of Steall opened up, the Allt Coire a’ Mhail meandering unhurriedly towards An Steall waterfall and the glen below. The twin ridges of An Gearanach and Binnein Mor stood out beyond in the afternoon sun.
We lost the path under several small snow patches which were clinging on in the shade, but it remained defined right to the south-east ridge, where a branch curved off up towards the summit. We chose the low path which led us down below the steep east flank of the Devil’s Ridge and then back to the col north of Sgorr an Iubhair. Aaron seemed to be enjoying himself: even when it transpired that some of the snacks had been forgotten he didn’t seem too fussed - I know I would have been pretty inconsolable when faced with the same revelations at his age!
For a short time we zigzagged down the pony track of Coire nam Miseach then got a long cool drink at the emerald lochan. The high path here was reasonable for a while, then faded out in the shallow boggy corrie below Bealach a’ Chip of the Devil’s Ridge. We persevered northwards and discovered a quality continuation that traversed gullies and streams above rarely-viewed rocky spurs where deer rested below. This section took us back to our starting point on the north-west ridge after about 1km, where Aaron humoured me with a laugh at my comment about another lap.
Several times we had commented on the effort that must have gone into building these paths. We wondered when they were built, and how they had been used. The Mamores in general are brimming with similar tracks, many of which don’t go where the modern walker or runner would go. I asked Noel Williams of Lochaber Geopark what he knew of these tracks and it transpired that the outing we had done is one of his Lochaber favourites and actually features in his book ‘Exploring the Landscape of Ben Nevis and Glen Nevis’ (1) in a very similar form. An article he sent me by Iain Thornber (2) tells of King Edward VII’s visit to Mamore Lodge in 1909 to take part in the annual stag cull. Grainy newspaper photographs remind us of a different age, where the summits and ridges were less prized than the beasts roaming below. The King - one of the most powerful individuals in the world at that time - had a knee injury which prohibited usual stalking methods and so the Estate men were required to move hundreds of wild stags around the Mamores in order to place them within shooting range for him. That the Royalty and nobility frequented these hills on hunts probably explains the network of well-built paths - ponies would have been used as much as possible to ease passage on the rough terrain. Back in the present, the mind reels to imagine ponies ascending switchbacks towards the Devil’s Ridge in a harder, wilder time.
We were delighted to have found such an interesting track on a hill that we both would have said we knew well. Clearly there is always a new way or a different variation worth exploring, and the summit isn’t everything. I will definitely run this route again, and plan to explore more of these old stalkers’ paths which shine a light on the hill usage of times past.
1 “Exploring the Landscape of Ben Nevis and Glen Nevis” (Geologic Map and Guidebook) by Noel Williams. Lochaber Geopark 2016
2 “Tales of King and the tailor” by Iain Thornber. The Oban Times (26 Jul 2018)
